Purple sweet potatoes do contain a lot of anthocyanins. In fact, it is not only purple potato, but also most higher plants. It is the product of plant metabolism. Under different acidity and metal ions, it will absorb sunlight with different wavelengths, thus making plants appear red, blue or purple. In addition to purple potato, eggplant, blueberry, red (purple) grape, cabbage, purple corn and other blue-purple vegetables and fruits have high anthocyanin content.
What kind of benefits anthocyanins have on human health has attracted a lot of research. In chemical experiments or cell experiments conducted in the laboratory, anthocyanins show strong antioxidant function. Antioxidant damage of cells is related to the occurrence of many chronic diseases, such as cancer, aging and cardiovascular diseases. Because vegetables and fruits have a certain effect on reducing the risk of cancer, it is natural for people to think whether anthocyanin is an effective component against cancer. Many people have studied this and published a large number of scientific papers. Generally speaking, anthocyanins have a strong inhibitory effect on cancer cells cultured in vitro. For experimental animals such as mice, anthocyanins also show some resistance to artificially induced tumors. However, whether it is effective for human body is lack of corresponding evidence. Italy has conducted some "case-control" studies, comparing the dietary status of thousands of cancer patients with similar "controls" but not sick, and found no "effective components" in blue-purple vegetables such as anthocyanins related to cancer. Some scholars believe that anthocyanins have strong antioxidant activity, but once ingested into the human body, it is difficult to maintain its function.
At present, the claimed "efficacy" of anthocyanins comes from "antioxidation", and there is no direct clinical trial data. Cell experiments and animal experiments can give scientists some research directions, but they cannot be used as evidence of "efficacy". In the United States, a company once advocated the "efficacy" of a certain blue-purple fruit, which was severely warned by the FDA and stopped.
Of course, this is not to say that there is anything wrong with purple potatoes. Any vegetable and fruit contains ingredients that are beneficial to the human body. Whether it is blue-purple, green or yellow, it is good for your health. In real life, there is absolutely no need to investigate which vegetables have what "special functions"-in fact, those legendary functions often lack reliable scientific evidence. For modern urbanites, the consumption of vegetables and fruits is often insufficient. Therefore, it is important to increase the amount of various vegetables and fruits in the diet, rather than looking for some "particularly good varieties", hoping that they have "magical effects."